Sunday, June 19, 2011

Why I miss George W. Bush more and more with each passing day

David Seaton's News Links
The Obama administration has long been bumbling along in the footsteps of its predecessor when it comes to sacrificing Americans’ basic rights and liberties under the false flag of fighting terrorism. Now the Obama team seems ready to lurch even farther down that dismal road than George W. Bush did. Instead of tightening the relaxed rules for F.B.I. investigations — not just of terrorism suspects but of pretty much anyone — that were put in place in the Bush years, President Obama’s Justice Department is getting ready to push the proper bounds of privacy even further. Editorial - New York Times

A review of President Obama’s record suggests that he may have been for same-sex marriage before he was against it. New York Times

I miss George W. Bush more and more with each passing day.

What do I miss most about George W. Bush?

I miss "hope".

George W. Bush gave the American people hope.

When Bush was president I, and many like me, had the hope that the United State's fundamental problem was that the president of the United States was stupid.

Now that Bush has gone, and we have elected a president who is said to have a very high IQ and a suitable time has passed, and looking around, it is becoming clear that things are no better: Guantanamo is still there, the Patriot Act is still there, the people who caused the financial crisis are still there. The two wars that Obama inherited are still there, plus another one he has started on his own...

It is obvious that the problem we and the world are facing isn't as simple as presidential bandwidth and although Barack Obama is beginning to look a bit like William Faulkner's impression of Henry James, whom he described as, "one of the nicest old ladies I ever met"; whatever the problem is in American government, presidential stupidity is not at the heart of it.

It is beginning to look as if perhaps the American political system itself and perhaps even the country itself are stupid; that George W. Bush and the United States of America were a perfect fit.

And if that is true, then it is quite difficult not to lose hope. DS

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sahra P. once asked us how that hopey changey thing was goin'? I don't know which side of that phrase she was referring to. I know that my own great expectations are quite diminished.

And ever since I was able to ponder the gestalt of the American political landscape, I realized that no one ever lost money betting on the ignorance, and stupidity of the American voter.

So from hope back to despair in only two years. Or is that hope to the reality of great expectations? [Always expect the worst. You're never disappointed].

But wait...I won't sit on my hands. I won't vote for the other side. If it makes the R's crazy to see a black man in the Oval Office, then that alone will be worth the next four year cycle.